Inspired again… and again… / Znowu zainspirowana….

OK, rabbitpie75 (in Ravelry & Knitter's Review) has inspired me to make another garment – first one being this one. One day, I saw her rendition of this Cabled Cardigan from Runway Knits. I really liked it, so naturally, I had to check out the book. Because I liked other patterns in there, and decided that I HAD to have the book. I particularly liked the A-Line Jacket and decided to give it a try. Shortly thereafter, I noticed that rabbitpie75 also made this jacket, hee, hee. Here is her version.

If that wasn’t enough for inspiration, I remembered that knitloon - another member of Ravelry and the Knitter’s Review forum community - also made this jacket a while ago. Hers is this beautiful, delicious, red version.

Here, I must say that both ladies were extremely generous when it comes to advice and tips on knitting this garment. Since this was my first adult-sized garment, I had some doubts prior to starting this project and both ladies were very, very helpful.

Thank you rabbitpie75 and knitloon.

OK, rabbitpie75 zainspirowala mnie zeby znowu wydziergac ubranie (pierwsze to tu). Pewnego dnia, zobaczylam jej Cabled Cardigan z Runway Knits. Spodobal mi sie, a wiec naturalnie musialam dowiedziec sie czegos wiecej o tym wzorze. W konsekwencji kupilam sobie cala ksiazke. Jednym z wzorow w tejze ksiazce jest A-Line Jacket – troche rozkloszowany zakiet na styl lat 50/60. Okazalo sie, ze rabbitpie75 tez juz go zdarzyla wydziergac (tutaj jest jej wersja). Jakby tego bylo malo, przypomnialo mi sie, ze pewna robotkowiczka z Knitter’s Review Forum (takie forum dla ludzi robiacych na drutach), tez to juz przerabiala jakis czas temu na czerwono.

Musze dodac, ze obie kobietki byly bardzo mile i pomocne zanim sie podjelam dziergania tego zakietu. Nigdy jeszcze czegos takiego nie robilam i mialam pewne watpliwosci. A one nie dosc, ze cierpliwie odpowiedzialy na moje pytania, to jeszcze udzielily kilku porad.

Dziekuje Wam Drogie Panie.

It started with the yarn…

When I first saw this jacket in the book, I immediately envisioned it in Malabrigo’s Aquarella. Sure, it would give me a more rustic, raw, sort of painterly version of the original, but that’s what I saw in my mind’s eye. And here the adventure began… You see, although Aquarella is a bulky yarn with a gauge that’s close to original yarn (Aquarella: 9 sts /14 rows per 4'' vs. Karabella Puffy at 8 sts/13 rows per 4''), at those thicknesses, even 1-2 stitches can make an important difference in the final size of your knitted project. For example, if you cast on 98 sts in the original yarn, you’ll get a 49'' wide jacket bottom. Cast the same 98 sts in Aquarella, and you get 43.5''. That’s a 5.5'' difference! Important, if you want the thing to fit properly. So off I went to re-calculate the entire pattern in favour of using Aquarella. Grrr…. It was more time consuming than difficult, but still… It’s not just the stitch/row count that will change, but also the amount and placement of decreases, buttonholes, etc. I could have started a project that is already written for my size and with a yarn, that’s perfect for it – no alterations of any kind needed. But noooooo…. For some unknown reason, I decided to make my life more complicated. However, I must say that I loved knitting with Aquarella.

Because my finished garment would not have that sophisticated, high fashion-y look as the original, I decided that the somewhat short sleeves and jacket length would not look very good in my version. It would: a) hit my hips at their widest point (no thank you), b) the bottom button would land at the spot where my tummy sticks out the most (NOT my idea of flattering), c) it would look visually unbalanced given the jacket heft and quilt-y texture. Consequently, I decided to elongate the length of the body, sleeves and collar.

To continue with the rustic feel of the coat, I chose slightly raw wooden buttons found at The Button Drawer. They have two sections devoted to very large buttons of different types. My choice is slightly shy of the 3” used in the original design.

Zaczelo sie od wloczki…

Jak zobaczylam wzor na ten zakiet, to od razu wyobrazilam go sobie zrobionego z Malabrigo Aquarelli. Takiego troche rustykalnego, surowego, malowniczego – innego niz ten z ksiazki. No i sie zaczelo…

Ach, bo wlasnie... Chociaz Aquarella jest bardzo zblizona gruboscia do oryginalnej wloczki (Aquarella: 9 oczek /14 rzedow na 10cm vs. Karabella Puffy: 8 ocz./13 rz. na 10cm), to nawet 1-2 oczka potrafia zrobic duza roznice. Jezeli, np. narzuci sie 98 oczek z Karabelli Puffy, to otrzyma sie dol zakietu o szerokosci 124.5 cm. Ale narzuc te same 98 oczek z Aquarelli, a otrzymasz dol zakietu o ok. 14 cm wezszy. Spora roznica, jesli sie chce, zeby jako tako pasowalo. A wiec nie mialam wyjscia, tylko siasc z kalkulatorem i wszystko poprzeliczac tak, zeby zakiet nie wyszedl ani za maly, ani za duzy. O rany… Chociaz nie bylo to trudne, to jednak bardzo czasochlonne, bo nie chodzi tylko o zmiane ilosci oczek i rzedow, ale tez o rozmieszczenie i dodanie rzedow, w ktorych zmiejsza sie ilosc oczek, umieszcza dziurki do guzikow, itp, itd. W zasadzie to moglam zaczac robic sweterek, gdzie wystarczy tylko robic wedlug wzoru, bez zadnych zmian, ale nieeeee… gdzie tam. Ja musze sobie wszystko komplikowac. No coz… Prawde mowiac swietnie mi sie dziergalo ta Aquarelle.

Postanowilam tez podluzyc caly zakiet, rekawy i kolnierzyk. Gdybym zrobila wszystko krotsze, tak jak w oryginale, wygladalabym w zakiecie smiesznie i niezgrabnie, a sam zakiet wygladalby bardzo kuso.

Co do guzikow, to dobralam tez takie rustykalne i surowe z drewna. Maja prawie 7.6 cm srednicy, a nabylam je z tad.

Overall knitting experience…

… was good. It was a quick knit due to the thickness of the yarn. The pattern was easy enough to understand and interpret (thanks again rabbitpie75 and knitloon). The only two things I would change have to do with decrease types and collar directions, which are not very clear. For example, they have you pick up your stitches for the collar the usual way, then to

work WS row,
work RS row,
“Purl 1 row on RS”(pg.156) – well, we just worked a RS row. Which RS row are they referring to? ANY RS row?
Work next WS row
Work next RS row
Next 7 rows just repeat last two rows.

The way I took it, is that the purl row just serves to create a neat crease line to fold the collar along its width.

I also wish that the decreases were more unified. When you look at the picture below, you’ll see that in the original, the decreases in the back are parallel to the garment’s edge angles. They’re leaning toward the middle of the jacket.

This type of decrease will create a visible line along the edge of the garment. But when you look at the fronts, the decreases are leaning away from the middle of the jacket, and away from the angle of the garment edges. These won’t be as visible in the final knitting, as the ones that follow the garment angle. So, maybe I’m too picky, but why not have it so that all the decreases follow the same style? That means either version A or B - as shown in the diagram. I chose version A, because I already had a lot of texture from the yarn and adding another visual element (i.e. line along the decrease line) felt like too much.

So, I think that’s that. I love the jacket and I love how it feels on. At the risk of sounding insane, I’ll say this: I can’t wait until the cool weather arrives (so I can start wearing the jacket, of course).

Have a great day!

No, a tak ogolnie…

… to fajnie i szybko sie dziergalo. Wzor byl wlasciwie latwy do rozszyfrowania, chociaz zmienilabym w nim dwie rzeczy: sposob zmiejszania oczek i instrukcje robienia kolnierzyka. Na przyklad, w kolnierzyku nabieramy tele oczek co kaza, a potem

przerabiamy strone lewa,
przerabiamy strone prawa,
jedna strone prawa przerabiamy oczkami lewymi (KTORA to niby prawa strone? Jest ich kilka),
przerabiamy str. lewa,
przerabiamy str. prawa,
nastepene 7 rzedow: powtarzamy ostatnie dwa rzedy.

Domyslam sie, ze z tymi lewymi oczkami chodzilo o to, zeby po prostu zrobic zagiecie w kolnierzu – tak tez zrobilam.

Co do sposobu zmniejszania oczek. Jesli popatrzymy na schemat (powyzej), to w oryginale zmniejszanie oczek w tyle (back) nachyla sie rownolegle z katem brzegow tylu. W ten sposob tworzy sie takze widoczna linia oczek podlug brzegow. Jesli spojrzymy na przody (front), to zmniejszanie nachyla sie odwrotnie (no, niezupelnie prostopadle, ale w tym sensie) do kata nachylenia wewnetrznych brzegow przodow. W tym przypadku, zmniejszanie oczek nie zaowocuje bardzo widoczna linia, lecz bedzie bardziej subtelne wizualnie. Moim zdaniem, byloby fajniej, gdyby zrobic albo wersje A, albo B. Jak juz robic, to calosc w tym samym stylu. No, ale to tylko moja opinia. Ja zrobilam wersje A, bo moj zakiet mial juz wystarczajaco wypuklosci (z powodu nierowniej wloczki).

No, i to by bylo na tyle.

Zaryzykuje nastepna herezje i powiem tak: nie moge sie doczekac jesieni i chlodnych dni (no, po to, zeby moc nosic ten zakiet). Ha, ha!

Zycze milego dnia.